Its really unfortunate, I was walking into the bathroom of the lovely Chicago O'hare airport and I saw one of the greatest photo-ops I have seen in a while. There was a woman dressed in a very serious dark suit sitting on the floor with her laptop on her lap, funny but nothing special. Heres the kicker, shes halfway cramped in between a newspaper stand and a pole, likely one of the most uncomfortable sitting positions I have seen someone in such formal wear in. So why would a woman like this put her self in such an uncomfortable position? Simple, there was an outlet nearby and she was charging her laptop. Unfortunately she was packing up by the time I got out of the bathroom so I didnt get a good chance to snap a picture of it, but I think you get the idea. Now why the story about me using the restroom and people sitting uncomfortably? Because it points out one glaring defect of our nations airports, and many other sites (including universities) which lack power outlets. People, in case the pigeon didn't make it to your neck of the woods with the message, we are in the 21st century, the information age, remember those tube things? In the past few years the amount of electronic equipment that the average traveler carries with them has gone up significantly (% increase from 0->1 is infinity). So when people are traveling in the airport between flights aside from eating, what are people looking to do? Thats right, charge their , whether its laptops, iPods, phones, people always need to charge something. No one wants to be on the flight where there battery dies halfway through because they were watching Californication in the airport before their flight. The only problem is that since most airports are fairly old, there is no way they could have accounted for the vast amount of electronic outlets that would be required by the present days business traveler (Come on, try to find somewhere to charge your blackberry, I dare you). So what are we left with? Airports which have very few outlets, none of which are marked, and often in very awkward places (I know we've all considered using the outlets which are under the check-in counter). The situation is so bad, that even companies have started to take advantage of the glaring oversight. In O'Hare airport Verizon has setup a counter which is simply 10 stools and divided little work areas each with two power outlets solely for the purpose of allowing people to charge their stuff and if they happen to get bored they can stare up at there big advertising board directly over it. Thanks Verizon, appreciate the consideration, but thats just the tip of the iceberg, and those stools are incredibly uncomfortable. I'm not electrician, but it seems to be that doing some wiring to get a whole bunch more outlets would be fairly trivial and would not take long at all. But theres a lot of airport, and a lot of gates to cover. So lets make it easy on you. How about just labeling the walls or posts where there are outlets so we don't have to hunt around the airport like a bunch of crack addicts looking for the next fix (crackberry anyone?).Considering how little traveling I do compared to the very sharply dressed gentleman next to me who is also clamoring for an outlet it is clear that I am not the only one who has these thoughts? Considering the burlesque show that we have to put on going through airport security can we at least get some power outlets? I mean if thats not the oversight of the century, I don't know what is.